{"id":10480,"date":"2020-12-17T17:11:08","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T11:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/?p=10480"},"modified":"2023-04-12T16:09:18","modified_gmt":"2023-04-12T10:39:18","slug":"whitening-undergoes-a-makeover-but-colourism-stays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/whitening-undergoes-a-makeover-but-colourism-stays\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018WHITENING\u2019 UNDERGOES A MAKEOVER BUT COLOURISM STAYS"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>\u2018WHITENING\u2019 UNDERGOES A MAKEOVER BUT COLOURISM STAYS<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"background-color: #ffff00;\"><strong>(Relevant for Sociology Syllabus: Paper 1 \u2013 <\/strong><strong>Stratification &amp; Mobility<\/strong> <strong>)<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"background-color: #ffff00;\"><strong>(Relevant for GS Syllabus: Paper1- <\/strong><strong>Poverty &amp; Developmental issues <\/strong><strong>)<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>A re-branding by cosmetics brands is unlikely to reverse <\/u><\/strong><u>prejudices favouring the fair skin.<\/u><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/1-1581100756.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10481\" src=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/1-1581100756.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"625\" height=\"321\" srcset=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/1-1581100756.jpg 625w, https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/1-1581100756-300x154.jpg 300w, https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/1-1581100756-150x77.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The world\u2019s biggest cosmetics companies have been selling a fairy tale that often goes something like this: If your colleagues dismiss you at work, if your talents are ignored, whiten your skin to turn your love life around, boost your career and command centre stage.<\/li>\n<li>No company has had greater success peddling this message across Asia, Africa and West Asia than Unilever\u2019s Fair &amp; Lovely brand, which sells millions of tubes of skin lightening cream annually. The 45-year-old brand earns the Anglo-Dutch conglomerate Unilever more than $500 million in yearly revenue in India alone, according to Jefferies financial analysts.<\/li>\n<li>Following decades of pervasive advertising promoting the power of lighter skin, a re-branding is hitting shelves globally. But it\u2019s unlikely that fresh marketing by the world\u2019s biggest brands in beauty will reverse deeply rooted prejudices around <strong>\u201ccolourism,\u201d<\/strong> the idea that fair skin is better than dark skin.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>\u2018GLOW &amp; LOVELY\u2019 <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Unilever said it is removing words like <strong>\u201cfair\u201d, \u201cwhite\u201d and \u201clight\u201d<\/strong> from its marketing and packaging, explaining the decision as a move toward <strong>\u201ca more inclusive vision of beauty.\u201d<\/strong> Unilever\u2019s Indian subsidiary, Hindustan Unilever Limited, French cosmetics giant L\u2019Oreal followed suit, saying it too would remove similar wording from its products. Johnson &amp; Johnson said it will stop selling Neutrogena\u2019s fairness and skin-whitening lines altogether.<\/li>\n<li><strong><u>The makeover is happening in the wake of mass protests against racial injustice following the death of George Floyd.<\/u><\/strong><\/li>\n<li>At the Skin and Body International beauty clinic in South Africa, owner Tabby Kara said she sees a lot of people inquiring about going one or two shades lighter.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cIt\u2019s a general demand in Africa,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople do want to be a bit fairer simply because society expects or is more interested in the fairness of a person.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>India\u2019s cultural fixation with lighter skin is embedded in daily matrimonial ads. The Hindu caste system has helped uphold some of the bias.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>JAPANESE, KOREAN BRANDS<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>In Japan, pale translucent skin has been coveted since at least the 11th Century. So-called \u201cbihaku\u201d products, based on the Japanese characters for \u201cbeauty\u201d and \u201cwhite,\u201d remain popular today among major brands.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The high-end Tokyo-based skin care brand Shiseido says none of its \u201cbihaku\u201d products contain ingredients that bleach skin, but do reduce melanin that can lead to blemishes. The company says it has no plans to change its product names, including the \u201cWhite Lucent\u201d line.<\/li>\n<li>In South Korea, the words \u201cwhitening\u201d or \u201cmibaek\u201d have been used in about 1,200 kinds of cosmetics products since 2001, according to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.<\/li>\n<li>Alex Malouf, a Dubai-based marketing executive, said companies had been playing to different audiences around the world but are now paying attention to the societal changes happening in the U.S. and Europe, where shareholders are primarily based.<\/li>\n<li>L\u2019Oreal tweeted last month it \u201cstands in solidarity with the Black community and against injustice of any kind.\u201d Its products in the U.S. include the Dark &amp; Lovely brand, aimed at black women. Outside the U.S., however, the company was marketing its \u201cWhite Perfect\u201d line for a \u201cfair, flawless complexion.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018WHITENING\u2019 UNDERGOES A MAKEOVER BUT COLOURISM STAYS (Relevant for Sociology Syllabus: Paper 1 \u2013 Stratification &amp; Mobility ) (Relevant for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,114,115],"tags":[4265,4258,1300,4257,3716,4264,1696,175,4263,4262,1908,4260,4256,4259,2478,4261,4255],"class_list":["post-10480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-studies-i","category-sociology-optional","category-sociology-optional-paper-i","tag-africa","tag-beauty-industry","tag-caste-system","tag-colorism","tag-fairness","tag-hindustan-unilever","tag-india","tag-japan","tag-johnson-johnson","tag-loreal","tag-prejudice","tag-racial-injustice","tag-skin-lightening","tag-societal-changes","tag-south-korea","tag-unilever","tag-whitening"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10480"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14002,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10480\/revisions\/14002"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}